"Legally Blonde" picks up 3 Laurence Olivier Awards
(CBS/AP) Frothy, film-inspired funfest "Legally Blonde: The Musical" won three big prizes at London's Laurence Olivier theater awards Sunday, while Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Love Never Dies" went home empty-handed despite seven nominations.
"Legally Blonde" won the award for best new musical at Britain's equivalent of Broadway's Tonys. Lead actress Sheridan Smith won the award for best actress in a musical and co-star Jill Halfpenny took the Olivier for supporting performer in a musical.
The story of a California girl who proves her mettle at Harvard Law School - based on the 2001 film starring Reese Witherspoon - received mixed reviews on Broadway, closing in 2008 after 595 performances. London quickly welcomed the film as a burst of sunshine when it opened in London in last year.
Smith said its appeal was obvious: "Its credit crunch, terrible weather, and all you want to do is have two and half hours of escapism."
Lloyd Webber's sequel to a monster hit "Phantom of the Opera" received more nominations than any show but went home without a single award. The musical opened a little over a year ago to mixed reviews and recently announced a series of cast changes as it fights to match "Phantom's" success.
Productions from the state-subsidized National Theatre, Donmar Warehouse and Royal Court Theatre dominated the prizes -- just as deep government cuts are about to slash funding to the arts in Britain.
"Clybourne Park," a provocative comedy about race relations and property prices in Chicago by American playwright Bruce Norris took home the Olivier for best play. It was first staged in Donmar and is currently running in the West End.
The National Theatre's "After the Dance," a play about 1920's "pretty young things" sinking in drink and despair, won four Oliviers including best actress in a play for Nancy Carroll, best supporting actor in a play for Adrian Scarborough, best revival and best costume design.
"If I don't go into labor in the next 24 hours, I'll be amazed," said best actress winner, who is due to give birth in 12 days. "After the Dance" is a long-neglected 1939 play by Terence Rattigan, a giant of mid 20th-century theater who is experiencing a resurgent reputation on the centenary of his birth.
Howard Davies took the best director award for his work on "The White Guard." The adaptation of Mikhail Bulgakov's novel of Soviet Upheaval also won the awards for set and lighting.
Roger Allam was victorious in capturing the award for best actor. Allam took the role of drunken knight Falstaff in the play "Henry IV Parts 1 and 2" at Shakespeare's Globe. He joked that the role of the rotund buffoon is "the middle-aged man's Hamlet."
David Thaxton took the Olivier for best actor in a musical award for his role in Stephen Sondheim's "Passion" at the Donmar Warehouse.
A production of kids' favorite "The Railway Children," atmospherically staged at London's Waterloo railway station, was named best entertainment.
The Oliviers honor achievements in London theater, musicals, dance and opera.
Held for the past few years as an industry dinner, the awards were relaunched this year as a glitzy stage show, with performances by West End stars, dance troupes and Barry Manilow, who performed "Copacabana" to a startled yet enthusiastic audience.
Angela Lansbury ended the evening by presenting the Olivier Special Award - a lifetime achievement prize to 80-year old composer and lyricist Sondheim.
If proof were needed of his continuing popularity, a production of Sondheim's "Into the Woods" at the Open Air Theatre in London's Regent's Park was named best musical revival.
The winners are chosen by a panel of theater professionals and members of the public.
The prize for most popular show, voted by the public, was awarded to the Queen Musical "We Will Rock You." Guitarist Brian May noted the show is still running 10 years after opening to "the (worst) reviews ever known to mankind" - using a more expletive word than "worst."